Cultural Farm BioDar implements its mission using the rich scientific achievements of the Institute of the Heritage of Villages and Regions and extensive cooperation with non-governmental organizations.
The protection of natural and cultural heritage is an important sphere of the Farm's activities, and one of the basic goals is to preserve biodiversity and breeding useful organisms that can be used in agriculture and horticulture.

Since 1989, we have been implementing a program for implementing of bumblebees and solitary bees for horticulate practice and since 2012 the company has been running its own breeding of solitary bees on a commercial scale. By participating in the creation of biological progress, we respond to the high demands placed on by food consumers and our customers in the field of high quality of offered products and the safety of their use.

The farm is part of the regional biodiversity conservation center. In this area of engagement, it runs conservation collections of crops with high biological value (historical varieties of agricultural, vegetable and fruit plants). In cooperating organic farms, it also oversees collections of medicinal, herbal and melliferous plants. Similar works are carried out for the protection of rare and endangered plants.

The sphere of cultural heritage includes products decorated in a way characteristic for different cultural groups. The high quality of our products is appreciated by very demanding customers. Their valuable remarks make the farm's offer constantly replenished and the products are perfected.

Birdhouses

 

Notes on the construction of boxes

Boxes pattern on boxes according to the Sokołowski formula are made of thick, at least 2 cm boards. Birdhouses with such walls are durable, warm in winter, and what is the most important do not boom when birds are jumping in. This is important because some species are so skittish that if the bird hears a resonance, he leaves the box with horror and does not return to it. The front wall is made of two boards bound together. As a result, the inlet opening can be long enough and the wall is more difficult to warp. Bird boxes should not have a bar in front of the outlet. The bar nailed in this place is completely unnecessary for the birds, and if it exists, it only facilitates the penetration of the inside of the nest by martens and cats.
Correct types of boxes can be easily opened to clean the interior of remaining nests and dirt

 

Hanging housebirds

Before the boxes are hung, a bit of sawdust is poured into their interior. They can be mixed with dry and crumbled peat. Sawdust is to replace the rot found in every natural hollow. Without peat or rot, birds may not want to nest in boxes, especially those species that do not seat the nest. The layer of sawdust or peat should be 2-3 cm thick.

The most appropriate time to hang boxes is late autumn. In the winter the birds stay in them and in the spring they usually nest there.

The boxes should hang still and be facing the opening to the east or southeast and hang vertically or slightly inclined forward so that the water can not get inside.
Under normal conditions, for each 10 hanged boxes should be: 2 PS1 type boxes, 3 PS2 type boxes, 3 PS3 type boxes, 1 PS4 type box, 1 half-open PP1 box. At the beginning, it is recommended to suspend a smaller number of boxes. As the birds settle down, more and more of them can be placed, especially boxes of those sizes that are in large numbers.
 

The more diverse types of boxes you use, the more you can place them. Birds belonging to different species have less interference with each other when acquiring food than individuals of one species. Small birds, e.g. tits, collect food in the immediate vicinity of the nest, therefore boxes intended for them (PS1 to PS3) should be at least 30 steps apart. Birds flying out to food for much greater distances can sometimes nest very close together (starling, jackdaw, pig, pigeon bruise). It is assumed, however, that the boxes are larger, the birds staying in them need a larger area to feed themselves. Therefore, we advise you to place larger boxes at distances no less than 50 m from each other.

When finding a place convenient for birds, you need to take into account that they like light. The boxes should therefore be hung in places that are lit: on the edge of the forest, near roads, on rivers, but not on the first trees, but a few steps deeper so that they are slightly sheltered from the wind and view. Well, if they are lightly covered with twigs. On the walls of buildings and under eaves roofs, we hang housebirds only if the house or wall is in the garden or there is a lot of greenery nearby. Always make sure that the boxes do not hang on the south side, because in the summer they would become too hot
On the wall, veranda and under the eaves of the protruding roof, semi-open boxes are especially suitable. The gray wagtail which is nesting in them eagerly settles in boxes placed just below the top of the roof, Venus Flytrap and Cinderella, and below - under the eaves of the roof.

Boxes for starlings and larger bird species should be hung at least 4 m above the ground. Boxes for tits can be placed even so low that you can look inside them. You only have to be sure that neither cats nor humans will have access to them when feeding young chicks.
 

Cleaning and inspection of boxes

The bird houses constantly occupied by the birds should be inspected and, if possible, cleaned regularly. Birds doesn't clean the interiors themselves, and over time, a lot of dirt is accumulated in them, in which parasites are multiplying. In the uncleaned boxes, the old nests piling up above one another, making it impossible to establish new nestlings over time.

Cleaning the boxes usually does not cause any trouble. All types of boxes should be cleaned only from August to the end of February.

Cleaning properly made does not leave any old nests or dust in the box. Before closing the box, one must remember about pouring a new layer of sawdust or peat to the bottom.
 

 

Prepared by: Dr inż. Stanisław Flaga